As Hurricane Irma makes her way to Florida, property insurance attorney, Javier Delgado, with Merlin Law Group, says … bust out the camera.
“You want to first be able to document the condition of your property before the storm hits.You want to take your time and you want to be able to videotape the outside of your property as well as the roof if you can, videotape the roof, make sure you can do it in a safe manner. Then, videotape very slowly the inside of your property,” said Delgado.
Of course, that’s after you’ve already put the shutters up and taken other safety measures.
“The purpose of videotaping all of this is to show the insurance company you didn't have any prior roof damage, you didn't have any prior damage to your windows or walls. Then the inside, the purpose of that is to really remind yourself of the things you had before the storm,” said Delgado.
Unfortunately, if you don’t have flood insurance already, you’re out of luck, as there’s a 30-day waiting period before it would kick in.
“The best thing you can do is just try to have sandbags to maybe slow down or avoid water from getting into your property. If you have a second story, bring your contents up to the second story,” said Delgado.
However insurance companies will pay for most wind driven rain damage.
“Wind driven rain would be where water is coming in around the sliding doors or on the windows or something the debris breaks a window or there's a hole in the roof and wind drive rain is coming in because of that opening of your property,” said Delgado. “Every policy will cover wind driven rain if there's an opening created which causes damage to the interior of the building. Some policies will wind driven rain without an opening and some policies will not cover wind driven rain unless an opening was created.”
And finally, after the hurricane: document, document, document. Take a detailed inventory of what is damaged, and even the damaged property you put on the side of the road as trash.
“One of the best pieces of advice I can give someone is to make sure they are able to document their own damages and not rely on an insurance adjuster to do so,” said Delgado. “But I would never give the original of a video or photograph or even a content to an instance adjuster or insurance company.”
Delgado says one of the best pieces of advice he can give is to make sure you document YOUR own damages with photos.
Don't rely on an insurance adjuster to do so,and don't give them originals.
He says many come form out of state, and many are busy with Harvey.
Most policies ask for proof of loss within 60 days.
